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Flora Teckie Correspondent
International Women’s Day, celebrated globally on March 8, is an opportune time to reflect on the importance of educating our daughters and the contribution of women and girls in building a peaceful global civilisation.
Many efforts have been made in the last few decades to ensure equal education and other rights for girls and women.
Despite this, various forms of discrimination against them still persist. In many cultures, girls have a lower status and enjoy fewer rights and opportunities than boys. Even in terms of schooling, boys often get preference to girls.
According to UNESCO, globally 58 million children of primary school-going age and 63 million adolescents continue to be denied their right to education and the majority of these are girls.
It is the Bahá’í view that, education must be provided to all, and that the education of girls is not only a human right, but is in the best interests of society as a whole.
The development and education of every child, their personality, talents, mental and physical abilities and spiritual qualities to their fullest potential, is the right of every child — whether boy or girl.
Boys and girls have the same capacity and can achieve similar results if they are educated and given the same opportunities.
According to the Bahá’í Writings: “ . . . men and women are equal in the sight of God . . . there is no distinction to be made between them. The only difference between them now is due to lack of education and training. If woman is given equal opportunity of education, distinction and estimate of inferiority will disappear”.
The advancement of civilisation now requires the full participation of everyone, men and women equally. For this to happen, girls, as well as boys, must be valued by their families and by society and given equal opportunities in all fields of human endeavour.
According to the Bahá’í Writings education must be provided for all. Girls are to be given equal opportunity to education. In a statement entitled, “The Promise of World Peace”, the Universal House of Justice, the governing council of the Bahá’í international community asserts: “The cause of universal education . . . deserves the utmost support that the governments of the world can lend it. For ignorance is indisputably the principal reason for the decline and fall of peoples and the perpetuation of prejudice. No nation can achieve success unless education is accorded all its citizens”.
Emphasising the importance of educating women and girls, the Universal House of Justice states: “The decision-making agencies involved would do well to consider giving first priority to the education of women and girls, since it is through educated mothers that the benefits of knowledge can be most effectively and rapidly diffused throughout society”.
Considering that girls and boys are equal in intellectual capacity and in potential to serve humanity, girls and boys should study the same curriculum. The way should be open for women and girls to enter all spheres of human endeavour, including the arts and sciences, agriculture, commerce, industry and affairs of state. There is no natural limit on women’s abilities.
Women and girls must be educated spiritually, emotionally and intellectually. Not only because, they deserve it in their own right, but also because they are the mothers of the next generation.
Mothers can instil in their children self-esteem and respect for others. In a family, although both parents share in the overall responsibility of educating their children, the mother is given recognition as the first educator of humanity, and she must be carefully prepared for this task. They are the primary agents for empowering individuals to transform society.
As the Bahá’í Writings state; “If the mother is educated then her children will be well taught. When the mother is wise, then will the children be led into the path of wisdom. If the mother be religious she will show her children how they should love God. If the mother is moral she guides her little ones into the ways of uprightness . . . Divine Justice demands that the rights of both sexes should be equally respected since neither is superior to the other in the eyes of Heaven. Dignity before God depends, not on sex, but on purity and luminosity of heart”.
Education and training of girls is crucial to the well-being and advancement of our communities and nations. It is common to view the benefits of women’s education only in terms of socio-economic development. But, material well-being is only one of the many benefits our communities derive from women and girls’ education.
It is the Bahá’í view that women’s full and equal participation in all spheres of life is not only essential to social and economic development, but also to the abolition of war, and the ultimate establishment of a united world.
As stated in the Bahá’í Writings: “when women participate fully and equally in the affairs of the world . . .war will cease”.
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